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Monday, April 21, 2008

Classic Pizza Margherita

***Homemade pizza is one of those things that I've always meaned to try, but I've never gotten around to it. I guess it's always just been easier to call up Papa John's and order our large supreme with no black olives or mushrooms...lol. What can I say?...I recently got ambitious and put together what you see here. I figured it would be best to start with a classic....a simple pizza made with tomato, mozzarella, and basil to imitate the colors of the Italian flag. I must say, it was pretty yummy!***

Classic Pizza Margherita(Tomato, Mozzarella, and Basil Pizza)

The following recipe is my modification from Lynne Rossetto Kasper's recipe found HERE .

Ingredients:Store-bought Pizza Crust (I used the refrigerated one by Pillsbury)

In a 10-inch skillet heat 1 tablespoon oil over medium high. Sauté onion and parsley to golden, then stir in garlic and oregano for a few seconds. Add the tomato sauce. Boil, stirring, 5 minutes or until thick. Spread sauce over rolled out crust, sprinkle mozzarella, Roma tomatoes, basil leaves, and finally the oil. Finish with generous black pepper and a little salt. Bake as directed.

TO MAKE PIZZA CRUST:Lightly oil a 14- to 16-inch pizza pan. Preheat oven to 500 degrees, setting rack as low as possible in oven. Roll out dough as thin as possible (no more than 1/16-inch thick). Spread over pan, rolling in edges to form a rim. Let rest 10 minutes. Bake dough for 8 - 10 minutes. Remove from oven and top as desired and bake 10 additional minutes. Cut and serve.

DID YOU KNOW?..."Pizza Margherita is a pizza prepared according to a recipe of the Italian chef Raffaelle Esposito. The pizza was first made in 1899 when Queen Marghereta visited Napels to escape a cholera epidemic in the north of Italy. The ingredients used to make a Margherita pizza, tomatos, mozzarella cheese and basil, imitate the colors of the Italian flag. Queen Margherata liked the pizza so much that she wrote a thank you letter to Esposito, who decided to name the pizza after the Queen." - Source: http://www.recipepizza.com/toppings/margherita_pizza.htm